After recording the worst opening trade, the Indian stock markets witnessed the biggest intra-day recovery as both the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty displayed a sharp bounce back. The Sensex reclaimed 34,000 mark, while the NSE Nifty crossed the 10,000-mark as of 1pm on Friday. The rupee too witnessed a sharp recovery, appreciating 36 paise at 73.92 per US dollar (intra-day).
The market is up over 5 per cent, after losing 10 per cent earlier in the day. With just half a day into trading, the benchmark indices have gone through both the extremes taking investors on a roller coaster ride over coronavirus scare. In opening session, both indices plunged over 10 per cent, hitting their lower circuit levels, as new coronavirus-led recession fears triggered panic selling in the market. Stock exchanges had halted trading for 45 minutes within 15 minutes for market opening. Normal trading resumed around 1030 hours.
The Sensex had touched an intra-day low of 29,388.97, while the Nifty plunged to 8,553.95. The last time the BSE had a circuit freeze and halt to trading on January 22, 2008, when the Sensex had its biggest loss (till then) of 1,408 points.
SBI was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying up to 12 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, HDFC, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel.
On the other hand, Nestle India, Asian Paints, TechM, Hero MotoCorp and ONGC were trading up to 4 per cent lower.
According to market participants, volatility heightened in global markets as benchmarks world over went into panic mode, insinuating a manic selloff.
Mild recovery was seen in other Asian bourses too with Shanghai down 1.23 per cent, Hong Kong 2.60 per cent, Seoul 6.08 per cent and Tokyo 3.43 per cent.
The Indian markets plunged as they followed the global markets carnage caused by the coronavirus scare.